9500i scared the bejezus out of me

[RadarKid]

my 9500i has been so silent for the past couple drives (no annoying falses now that they've all been marked and blocked), that this AM coming into work at about 6am on a Monday - when it popped up and said "Ka Band Detected" I nearly **** myself hitting the brakes. Good thing noone was on my ass!

There was a local cop backed up behind the opposing wall of an overpass.
Impossible to see until you already passed him.

Gotta love the silence till necessary!

[lacning74]

Great save! The lack of false alert desensitization definitely keeps you on your toes, unlike the fire drills at work that I just ignore and close my office door.

[CJR238]

Good save! I had one like that, I literally locked up my breaks and passed the LEO doing 5 under. It took 5 minuets for my heart to slow down.
I have an amplified speaker in my car so it really gets my attention, especially when my radio is turned down.

[RadarKid]

Good save! I had one like that, I literally locked up my breaks and passed the LEO doing 5 under. It took 5 minuets for my heart to slow down.
I have an amplified speaker in my car so it really gets my attention, especially when my radio is turned down.

I see your info says you have Pop and Ku off on yours.
What does that mean exactly, and Why is that?

[CJR238]

I see your info says you have Pop and Ku off on yours.
What does that mean exactly, and Why is that?

KU Radar is not used in the US and defaulted to off. POP is a new feature on some radar guns to get your speed but cant be used to give a ticket.

[CJR238]

I think allot of people forget the huge advantage of a RD that only goes off for real threats. It takes time to program the 9500I to do this the way you want and get use to it, but when you do its awesome!

[RadarKid]

KU Radar is not used in the USand defaulted to off. POP is a new feature on some radar guns to get your speed but cant be used to give a ticket.

How is that? If they can get your speed with it, and you're over the limit, how is it that they can't pull you over and give you a ticket?

And why would you want it off? Wouldnt you want to pick it up if they hit you with it?

[CJR238]

How is that? If they can get your speed with it, and you're over the limit, how is it that they can't pull you over and give you a ticket?

And why would you want it off? Wouldnt you want to pick it up if they hit you with it?

Do a search on POP to get more detail but POP is POOP. The big reason having it off is you will get more falsing with POP and most radar guns don’t have POP. POP is also inadmissible in court.
Some also say you can potentially get better range with POP off.

[focalcivic]

For the most part are you guys running it on Auto? Also, I know auto decreases X sensitivity, how about on the 9500? I have to keep X on.

[lacning74]

For the most part are you guys running it on Auto? Also, I know auto decreases X sensitivity, how about on the 9500? I have to keep X on.

I have to keep X on as well. In auto mode, the sensitivity is based on speed.

Check out this recent thread (http://www.radardetector.net/forums/escort/35294-9500i-auto-mode.html).

[RadarKid]

I have to keep X on as well. In auto mode, the sensitivity is based on speed.

Check out this recent thread (http://www.radardetector.net/forums/escort/35294-9500i-auto-mode.html).


I keep it in Highway Mode with all my falses blocked out.
That way you have the best of sensitivity with your everyday known falses blocked so its a quiet detector.

[lacning74]

I keep it in Highway Mode with all my falses blocked out.
That way you have the best of sensitivity with your everyday known falses blocked so its a quiet detector.

I keep it on Auto Mode since I'm always driving through uncharted urban territories around here, but at the speeds I'm usually driving, it really doesn't make a difference.

[CJR238]

X2, RadarKid & lacning74. I use Highway mode almost all the time, however when im in uncharted territory and city driving I use Auto mode.

[MEM-TEK]

For the most part are you guys running it on Auto? Also, I know auto decreases X sensitivity, how about on the 9500? I have to keep X on.

We all know that Auto Sensitivity mode on the 9500i kills X and K band alerts from door openers if you are driving slower than 15mph, and that Auto Sensitivity mode has no effect on Ka band radar since it is assumed that Ka band radar is always police radar. Here is some stuff which some of you may not know about Auto mode on the 9500i:

-- Above 15mph, sensitivity rapidly ramps up between speeds from 15mph to around 50 or 55mph. The sensitivity ramp-up is not linear but instead is logarithmic. Thus the 9500i sensitivity at 35mph is much better than the half sensitivity which would be expected if the sensitivity ramp-up was linear.

-- Auto Sensitivity mode, at slower driving speeds and even down to a dead stop, looks at the signal strengths of any received signals. If Auto Sensitivity mode sees a signal which is unreasonably increasing in strength relative to your current driving speed, or which is unreasonably increasing in strength relative to stationary false signal sources which it is presently ignoring, or which is increasing in strength while you are at a dead stop, then magically the 9500i will produce an alert to what it has determined to be approaching X or K band radar.

It took me a few months to figure the above stuff out, and until I did and finally realized that Auto mode has a lot more going on with it aside from mere speed based sensitivity, I didn't trust it at all when driving around town since nearly all of my police radar encounters in and around town are K band guns. Finally, after figuring the above stuff out, I started to use Auto mode all the time around town and have found that it never fails to alert me to approaching K band radar guns. So, for all of these reasons, I call Auto Sensitivity mode "Black Magic" mode. I don't have a clue about the software code behind Auto mode, but I have been told that there is a lot of code behind Auto mode's operation.

:)

[RadarKid]

We all know that Auto Sensitivity mode on the 9500i kills X and K band alerts from door openers if you are driving slower than 15mph, and that Auto Sensitivity mode has no effect on Ka band radar since it is assumed that Ka band radar is always police radar. Here is some stuff which some of you may not know about Auto mode on the 9500i:

-- Above 15mph, sensitivity rapidly ramps up between speeds from 15mph to around 50 or 55mph. The sensitivity ramp-up is not linear but instead is logarithmic. Thus the 9500i sensitivity at 35mph is much better than the half sensitivity which would be expected if the sensitivity ramp-up was linear.

-- Auto Sensitivity mode, at slower driving speeds and even down to a dead stop, looks at the signal strengths of any received signals. If Auto Sensitivity mode sees a signal which is unreasonably increasing in strength relative to your current driving speed, or which is unreasonably increasing in strength relative to stationary false signal sources which it is presently ignoring, or which is increasing in strength while you are at a dead stop, then magically the 9500i will produce an alert to what it has determined to be approaching X or K band radar.

It took me a few months to figure the above stuff out, and until I did and finally realized that Auto mode has a lot more going on with it aside from mere speed based sensitivity, I didn't trust it at all when driving around town since nearly all of my police radar encounters in and around town are K band guns. Finally, after figuring the above stuff out, I started to use Auto mode all the time around town and have found that it never fails to alert me to approaching K band radar guns. So, for all of these reasons, I call Auto Sensitivity mode "Black Magic" mode. I don't have a clue about the software code behind Auto mode, but I have been told that there is a lot of code behind Auto mode's operation.

:)

You prefer it over Highway?

Also, I turned my POP on. Am I the only one that thinks thats a good idea?

[CJR238]

You prefer it over Highway?

Also, I turned my POP on. Am I the only one that thinks thats a good idea?

If you don't get a tone of falses, why not leave POP on.:rolleyes:

[djrams80]

If you don't get a tone of falses, why not leave POP on.:rolleyes:That little teeny tiny Cobra gives me false pop alerts.

[MEM-TEK]

You prefer it over Highway?

Also, I turned my POP on. Am I the only one that thinks thats a good idea?

I definitely prefer Auto mode while I am driving around town.

I always keep POP off since it isn't used in my area and since I don't like the occasional false alerts which I get from other RDs if POP is turned on. Besides, it seems that trying to continuously and rapidly scan the two POP frequencies takes a bit of sensitivity away from scanning the rest of the radar spectrum.

:)

[RadarKid]

I definitely prefer Auto mode while I am driving around town.

I always keep POP off since it isn't used in my area and since I don't like the occasional false alerts which I get from other RDs if POP is turned on. Besides, it seems that trying to continuously and rapidly scan the two POP frequencies takes a bit of sensitivity away from scanning the rest of the radar spectrum.

:)


Ironic that I asked this question today.
I assume the x50 default is Pop Off as well? I always had my X50 at default, and never saw anything regarding a Pop warning.

BUT.....today (this AM) I turned POP on when I'd realized default was off.
I drove around town quite a bit this afternoon with no falses...blocked out signals showed as blocked etc. But when I got back on the NAVY Base I work on, I was pulled over on the side of the road looking at how I will most likely route my hard-wire to the rear view. As I was sitting there, I popped my door open to look at the trim up the A column, and a second later. BAM - POP detected. It was locked on full alert for about 2 seconds that backed off and disappeared. I was sitting still at the time, and there was no sign of a cop around (pretty easy to see from where I was).

Would the interior light at the rear view set this off when the door opened up and it turned on? Or was it something else? Sunlight? Hmm..

Wierd.

[MEM-TEK]

My guess is that there are some Ka band communications systems on the Navy base, and that the modulated signal caused the POP alert.

[Kayrac]

Okay so i'll chime a bit here, the 9500i auto mode was #1 for me, worked amazing when i had it :)

but please turn pop off, save yourself the hassel, the filtering they use doesn't work well, falses galore, sad to say, but the only RD that even has a pop tolerable mode(i've only used the 9500i, and v1 so between those two that is) is the v1

was driving one night at like 1:30am and a little civic goes past me, and right as he evens out with me, my 9500i was blaring pop, scared the bejezus outta me :(